One of the things that has frustrated me about candidate de Blasio has been his unwillingness to make firm commitments in writing: until recently his website was full of very general platitudes but no specific nuts-and-bolts of his platform positions.

Finally there is a comprehensive policy document on the website with some animal related policy details at the very end, on page 68 – and a firm commitment in writing to “improving” NYC Animal Care and Control, but seemingly in a similar mode to what we have now: as an “an independent non-proﬁt with policy controlled by the city”, a structure with an 18 year track record of failure. I’m still not sure that the last Mayoral hope for ACC’s animals understands the problem.

de Blasio’s policy details may be too little, too late: while people were clamoring for actual policy positions and he was trying to figure out what they were, Anthony Weiner jumped into the race and, as the phrase goes, sucked all of the air out of the room. In the most recent two polls de Blasio is running a rather distant fourth behind Christine Quinn, Weiner, and Bill Thompson. Of the likely eventual winners, neither Quinn nor Weiner show any signs of being a change agent for the shelter animals of NYC.